Classes available at CFAC

Residents who would like to learn about jewelry making, knitting and yarn dyeing will want to attend a few upcoming classes.

The Community Fine Arts Center, a department of the Sweetwater County Library System, is dedicated to providing a variety of classes in different arts and crafts.

For the next few months, the CFAC staff members are sharing their passion for jewelry making, knitting and yarn dyeing. All the classes are open to students with little or no experience, have little or no class fees, and some tools are available for students to use during class.

The jewelry classes are taught by Jennifer Messer and cover different techniques such as stringing beads, wire wrapping, and combining beads, chain and leather to create one of a kind pieces of jewelry. The next class is creating designs in wire to form a ring, and is offered twice, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. and Feb. 19 at noon.

Other jewelry classes this spring include seed-bead earrings, a traveler's bracelet and chandelier earrings.

All the supplies and tools are included in each jewelry class fee, but students with their own tools or specific beads, chain or findings they are hoping to use are welcome to bring them to class. Students will leave each class with a finished, or nearly finished, piece of jewelry to wear.

An ongoing weekly knitting class is available for beginners and experienced knitters on Thursday afternoons from 4 to 6 p.m. with CFAC director Debora Soule. Everyone is welcome, call or stop by for information. Individual instruction times are available for beginners. These classes are free of charge, but participants provide their own materials.

Combining both knitting and jewelry, experienced knitters can knit with wire to make earrings or a bracelet on Feb. 6 from 1-4 p.m. This class is free, but call to register and to get the supply list at the CFAC.

Color and yarn come together with yarn dyeing in March. One of the things that attracts people to knitting and crocheting is the wonderful array of colors of the yarns. Many experienced stitchers start thinking about dyeing yarn in their own color combinations that they envision for a special hat or scarf. Kool-Aid is a safe, easy and fun way to dye wool yarn. It requires no specialized equipment, and is safe for anyone to do.

"Since it's actually food dye, you can even use your kitchen utensils without fear of contamination," Soule said.

This class is free and class participants will need to bring their own skein of 100 percent wool yarn and packets of Kool-Aid or other flavored drink mix. A detailed information sheet is available at the CFAC.

Visit the Community Fine Arts Center to check out examples of our upcoming classes and sign up for a class or two. Or browse our collection of how-to books and videos and get inspired by the art on display. Residents can also keep up with the classes and current exhibits on our website http://www.cfac4art.com or friend us on Facebook to see great photos of upcoming events.